Thirteen Things About our Trip to Albuquerque, NM

1. We left at 7:00 a.m, Friday morning after Jeff got off work. I packed the car the night before so all we had to do was load ourselves up and drive off. Jeff insisted he drive. I would of preferred that he slept. I was not going to fight him on this because he loves to drive-he also is a horrible passenger-telling me to slow down, move over one lane, speed up, you get the idea. I was able to catch up on my Fall in to Reading list so I was happy.
2. We decided to camp this trip. We borrowed a tent from Jeff's brother. We didn't check it before we left. We started to put it together around 4:30 or 5 that night, storm clouds were closing in. We were trying to get this done fast so we could eat. The tent was broken. The poles you use to hold it up were broken in half. We threw it away and went to find another one. You would think this was a simple task-it wasn't. Not only did we have Balloon traffic, we also could not find a tent. Wal-Mart-none. K-Mart-none. Target-bingo, found it! Funny thing is we passed a Target 5 minutes into our trip but Jeff said, "I am not buying a tent at Target. It will be over priced!" So 45 minutes later we walked out of Target with our very nice, very inexpensive tent! "Take that," says the loyal Target shopper!!! If you want to see if your marriage will last, put together a tent in the dark, that you have never done before-with storm clouds about to rain down it's wrath on you. Glad to report-we are still happily married! Thank God!
3. We ate pancakes each morning with the retired RV folks. We made lots of friends with these more "seasoned" travelers. Each one applauded us for starting our "Seeing The Country Tour" early. They mean: before kids-not waiting until you are retired with less energy. They were precious people! Glad to have the oppurtunity to meet these folks.
4. Only saw the balloons one day, the rest of the time it rained so the balloon festival was cancelled. I will post a few of my pictures-just haven't gotten around to unpacking the cameras from my travel bag.
5. We had to fill up our days somehow-since it was non-stop raining. Thankfully the Target tent was a trooper and kept us dry! Others in our camp did not weather the storm like we did, they were soaked. Thank God for Target! Ha Ha!
6. We drove to Santa Fe one day-with a side trip to Taos. Jeff decided to take a "short cut" on the way home from Taos. The short cut added two hours to our 4 hour drive!!! All was well, I had a book plus we had a few books on tape. We survived! Still married...
7. In Taos, we drove up the mountain to one of the ski lodges. It was a gorgeous drive. It had stopped raining so we got out and walked along this stream than ran down the bottom of the mountain. The water was freezing. Jeff kept telling me to be careful as I climbed on the rocks. Jeff stayed on the bank and snapped photos-there was no way he wanted to get close to the freezing water. The trees were a gorgeous golden color that sparkled in the sun-breath taking really. While in Taos we had a great big belly laughing time-I promised Jeff I would never tell what he did-but it was so funny! It will be one of those moments that I can say just one word and we both would start laughing the great big belly laugh again. Love being married...
8. Next day after I asked Jeff not to drive more than an hour radius-he asks me if I would like to drive up to Four Corners (the place where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet) this was a 31/2 hour drive one way! "Oh alright! What else are we going to do sit in our tent!" says Susan. We then drove to Durango-except we couldn't get out to explore because it was raining. So we drove right through. Jeff loves to drive-I love to see the sights-this trip was more for Jeff's benefit than mine, I think.
9. I bought an ornament for my Christmas tree. If you don't know-let me explain. Each trip I buy an ornament to remember our trip. My plan is to one day have a Christmas tree dedicated to our travels. We have done this since we were married so it is a fun tradition for Jeff and myself. Although the ornament hunt was a little harder this year. The good news is we found it-it's a small replica of a hot air balloon. I can't wait to put up my "travel tree." I will take pictures-I promise!
10. I also buy a magnet from each town. I put them on my fridge. I am going to buy a magnetic board and frame the edges and paint "Young Road Trips" on the top so I can display in our new house without the clutter on my refrigerator. We bought three from this trip alone-if you only saw the number of magnets I have,plus I recieve from others who think of me while they are traveling. Lots of fun memories-just not enough space. The neices and nephew enjoy moving them around though-so it works.
11. The last day, we finally walked around Albuquerque. It stopped raining that morning, thank God! The retired RV friends told us that we had, HAD to go to Old Town. We did and loved it! I found a Route 66 ornament there-I bought it since we have been driving the bits and pieces still left on each road trip. We could of bought more souveniors but Jeff kept saying "Yes, that will work if you have the right place for it!" Which translates, " A one bedroom apartment is not the right place to put all this crap!"
12. I can not count the number of times we said "Thank God we do not have kids!" We want them and look forward to that day but with the tent, the rain and all the driving to keep us occupied-the trip would of been a little bit more rough, we think. Those parents out there reading this will say, "Not we think, we know it would of been a little harder to entertain the kids while driving umpteen hours!"
13. We got home at 2:00 am Tuesday morning. I am still tired. Our clothes still need to be washed and put away. The camping stuff is in the storage unit though! But the rest of the stuff still needs to be done. So I will post pictures and another post when I finish this job-as a reward for myself. Until then...I am grounded from the BLOG.

See you when my apartment is back in order!